Andy Thomas eats crow to save his political career, but wants us to apologize to Sheriff Joe. Fat chance

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, in an action taken "in solidarity" with New Times, issued a press release stating that more than 40 weekly newspapers in North America "are providing links on their Web sites that direct readers to the many places on the Internet where the home address of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is listed."

In its Sunday, October 21 lead editorial, the Arizona Republic lambasted Thomas, Arpaio and Wilenchik, announcing that the Republic and Channel 12 (KPNX) had filed a motion to unseal all documents associated with the grand jury.

"The public has a clear and compelling interest in seeing all of the records of this outrageous attempted prosecution and the arrests of two New Times executives for one very clear reason: The prosecutors used their subpoenas to try to get a broad, intrusive look at the interests of the newspaper-reading public," the newspaper wrote. As mentioned above, Judge Baca has granted an expedited hearing on the matter.

AP/Wide World

Andrew Thomas claims he was unaware of Wilenchik's actions against New Times.

Tony Blei

A throng of media greets New Times executive Michael Lacey as he's released from the Fourth Avenue Jail.

There was a distinct minority of naysayers. KTAR 92.3-FM morning host Darrell Ankarlo called the original Dougherty column "irresponsible journalism," then proceeded to flub the County Attorney's name, calling him "Andrew Card."

Following Thomas' verbal dressing down of him, Dennis Wilenchik told Republic reporter Lynh Bui in an e-mail  which was reported in a front-page story on October 21  that the case had been "hysterically and falsely reported" in the press.

While asserting that he respected the County Attorney's decisions, the pugnacious Wilenchik denied that he had mishandled the case, as Thomas has maintained. And he claimed that there was "absolutely no unethical contact or intent" in his attempt to establish private communications with Judge Baca, who was overseeing the grand jury looking into New Times.

Wilenchik also threatened in the e-mail to the daily newspaper, "Any further attempt to besmirch my reputation earned after 30 years will not be tolerated."

By any estimation, Wilenchik has turned into an albatross around Thomas' neck.

"Wilenchik is taking the spear and he should be taking the spear because it was just such an over-reach," said political insider Jason Rose of Rose & Allyn Public Relations in Scottsdale. He stated that he believed all contact between Thomas' office and Wilenchik should be severed, even in civil litigation.

"I thought the request Dennis made [in the subpoena] was outrageous and insane," observed Rose. "Whether it's Dennis or me or any aide to any politician at any point in time, you're not the show. Don't ever get confused that you are the show. Don't get caught up in one victory in court on behalf of Arpaio, or that you're Buster Badass because you're working for the County Attorney and the sheriff at the same time.

"Your job is to follow the law and represent your client and your cause with honor and dignity. Not with arrogance and imprudence. That's what took place here. And he absolutely should've been fired."

Rose, who has advised Republicans including Arpaio and Thomas, acknowledged that Thomas had been hurt by the controversy, but didn't believe it to be a fatal blow to his career.

"Look, politics is a lot like baseball," said Rose. "Sometimes there are foul balls. Sometimes there are errors. And in this case, I don't think there's any question there's a foul ball. And I think it's absolutely the case that the County Attorney will not only recover from this but will continue on as County Attorney and, perhaps, other things in the future."

However, Rose's analysis only holds if Thomas, as he's claimed, truly had no knowledge of the over-broad grand jury subpoena, the arrests, and Wilenchik's attempts at an ex parte communication with Judge Baca. It should be recalled that Thomas was working in concert with Wilenchik over the County Attorney Office's challenges to the county judiciary.

Former County Attorney Romley questioned how Thomas could fire Wilenchik as prosecutor if Wilenchik (whom some wags now call "Wilencheckbook" because of the nearly $2 million he's racked up in the county's employ) had truly been independent. Romley characterized the entire episode as "amateurish" and said he believed that its after-effects would dog Thomas.

"Somebody in the first year of law school would have identified the ramifications of that subpoena," insisted Romley, adding, "There are a lot of questions out there, and I hope this doesn't go away."

County Democrats certainly plan to make an issue of it a year from now when they challenge Thomas' re-election bid. Maricopa County Democratic Party chairman Mark Manoil seemed delighted, though not overconfident, at Thomas' fumble.

"We're glad to see that this is coming to light, because we think this is not the one and only instance of over-reaching and abuse of power that people in Maricopa County have been subject to by both Arpaio and Thomas," Manoil offered. "Wilenchik seems to have been a very willing surrogate for Thomas. We think there's a lot more investigation that needs to be done about their relationship."

Arpaio, for his part, is renowned for having the political longevity of a turtle. But he too may suffer a backlash because of the Lacey-Larkin arrests.

"He has a such a deep reservoir of political capital with the voters," said Rose of Arpaio, noting, "But there's no question it was drawn down this past week. Because if you're talking about . . . New Times, [Arpaio] starts looking petty."

when you first look at what has taken place you have to ask your self is this a Joke ? and then Reality sets in and you know that this is not a Joke but some thing that is truely taken place right here in your own city and there is little or nothing that you can do about it but sit back and watch the confusion and stupity run rampant since these yokles have been in our city there has been alot of stupid things taken place and all tha a Phoenian can do is laugh or cry ,presumbly which ever one comes first and you have to ask your selfdid we really vote these clowns into office or did they just sneek in while our heads were turn?I can only say that I think this is only going to get worst because now they have to clean up the mess that they have made ,no matter what it takes or who it hurts ,so keep your eyes and ears open because retaliation is a bitch named ,,,,,,,,,,and ,,,,,,,,,I know that you can fill in the blanks on your own with very little help from me ,be afraid be cautious double check every thing that you do !

when you first look at what has taken place you have to ask your self is this a Joke ? and then Reality sets in and you know that this is not a Joke but some thing that is truely taken place right here in your own city and there is little or nothing that you can do about it but sit back and watch the confusion and stupity run rampant since these yokles have been in our city there has been alot of stupid things taken place and all tha a Phoenian can do is laugh or cry ,presumbly which ever one comes first and you have to ask your selfdid we really vote these clowns into office or did they just sneek in while our heads were turn?I can only say that I think this is only going to get worst because now they have to clean up the mess that they have made ,no matter what it takes or who it hurts ,so keep your eyes and ears open because retaliation is a bitch named ,,,,,,,,,,and ,,,,,,,,,I know that you can fill in the blanks on your own with very little help from me ,be afraid be cautious double check every thing that you do !

This case shows the danger of grand juries. They are usually used by the government to jail people for crimes when the government doesn�t have any evidence a crime was committed.

In this case if Sheriff Joe had any �probable cause� that the New Times violated the law by publishing Sheriff Joe�s address on the web he would have arrested them years ago. But he didn�t.

With out the �probable cause� needed to arrest the folks at the New Times it looks like Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe where hoping to get a grand jury to give them a lame excuse to jail the folks at the New Times. They would then have said that the �grand jury� thought that the New Times had �kinda, sorta, mighta violated the law� and use that as an excuse to arrest the New Times for a felony and drag them thru the court system, when in fact no �probable cause� has ever existed that the New Times violated the law.

While I don�t like former Arizona governor Fife Symington the same thing happened to him. The Feds used a grand jury to charge him with a whole bunch of crimes, which a judge eventually threw out. Well threw out after he went thru the expensive court process. It seems the Feds didn�t like Fife and wanted to jerk him around in the criminal justice system, which they did. It seems like Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe wanted to do the same thing to the New Times.

The new Keystone Cops... I hope Sheriff Joe and Andrew Thomas like their jail; it looks like they may be spending time there. They seem bent on turning everyone in Maricopa County into criminals, including themselves. This Tough on crime witch hunt has to stop somewhere; we tax payers simply can't afford it. It is even cutting into our tourism industry. Out of town visitors routinely get thrown in jail and unjustly punished, word spreads, this is the worst county to get in a brush with the "law". There is no common sense, they are turning teens into convicts by overcharging offences that leaves only 2 options: Plea bargain and usually it is still a felony count whereby, the defendant gets jail time, even on a first offence, a 17 year old gets charged as an adult. Option #2 is a jury trial, and with the overcharging usually the risk is pretty grim. I know my son was in an automobile accident, and was staring down the barrel of Andrew Thomas shotgun to a tune of 18 years. He was 17 no drinking or drugs involved, he was being perused by an irate motorist and didn't know how to react, and he collided with a meth user driving on a suspended license in the suicide lane trying to escape. These infractions in other states are usually handled with a warning, because in other states their focus is on helping young adults become productive in society, and not on turning them out to the prison system, which is intended for hardened criminals that have to go there, because they are a threat to society, not kids that should get detention. Sheriff Joe and Andrew Thomas are completely incognizant of what they are doing to people as they try to climb the political ladder in county circus arena.

Arpaio is in denial. He can't accept the fact that he's not going to be around much longer so he's becoming more demented every day; sort of how Hitler was acting when he became aware it was almost over.--Melanie Bulseco

Sheriff �Joke� and his heigh-ho-Silver good buddy the Maricopa County attorney, need to be hauled before a grand jury�in handcuffs, leg-irons and pink underwear (and those black-and-white striped prisoner suits and grilled�over a slow fire�for what they have done!

This is OUTRAGEOUS! If the people of Maricopa County continue to re-elect these two thugs, they deserve what they get!

Good for you and i hope to hear more about that ass hole in your magazine and online. I also hope The sherif reads all this so he knows how the poeple really feel about his rasist ass! No one hs the right to do what they tried to do and as sherif he should know that the most If not then he needs to quit trying to tell everyone else how the law goes and even more so stop trying to enforse them!

PHOENIX � Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, owners of Phoenix New Times, were arrested Thursday night by Maricopa County Sheriff�s Office deputies for revealing the contents of a grand jury subpoena, a class 1 misdemeanor. �We�re being arrested for raising hell. It�s sort of a tradition journalism has,� said Lacey. Less than 24 hours later, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas stammered his way, uncomfortably, through a press conference where he announced it had become clear to him the investigation had gone in a direction he would not have authorized. Thomas stated all charges would be dropped against Lacey and Larkin and said Dennis Wilenchik would no longer be serving as a special prosecutor on this or any other matters. The subpoena stems from a Phoenix New Times article by John Dougherty published in 2004, in which Dougherty disclosed Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio�s home address, along with the rest of his real estate holdings, while questioning how the sheriff was able to plunk down hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to make some of those purchases. Thomas called New Times� decision to put Arpaio�s home address on its website �a reckless and foolish thing to do,� and called the results �arguably criminal.� A.R.S. � 13-2401(A) states, �It is unlawful for a person to knowingly make available on the world wide web the personal information of a peace officer, justice, judge, commissioner, public defender or prosecutor if the dissemination of the personal information poses an imminent and serious threat� to that person or the safety of that person�s immediate family and �the threat is reasonably apparent to the person making the information available on the World Wide Web to be serious and imminent.� Violation is a class 5 felony. Arpaio�s not talking. He says he�s the victim here. Lacey and Larkin decided it was important for the public to see the subpoena, which not only requested information and records from reporters, but identification information about everyone who visited the Phoenix New Times website from Jan. 1, 2004 to the present, which pages they accessed and �information obtained from �cookies,� including, but not limited to, authentication, tracking and maintaining specific information about users (site preferences, contents of electronic shopping carts, etc.)� It even asked for visitors� Internet Protocol addresses, the website users visited prior to coming to the Phoenix New Times website, the type of browser they used to access the Phoenix New Times website and the operating system used by each visitor. Thomas continued, �In looking at this matter in its totality over the last 24 hours, it has become clear to me that the investigation has gone in a direction that I would not have authorized � They owe an apology to the sheriff for endangering him. And the New Times owes an apology to the court and the state of Arizona for violating the law by releasing grand jury information and violating a court order in the process. The reality is that they should have been held accountable for those offenses, but at this point, this matter is in such a posture that I�m not going to prosecute it. It has been badly mishandled and we�re not going forward.� A reporter noted, �But here we have two incidents in two weeks in which Mr. Wilenchik has called undue attention to this office,� to which Thomas responded, �Fair enough, for which I accept responsibility.� Aside from the subpoena�s outrageously broad request for information, Wilenchik, who readers may remember as a former Cave Creek Planning Commission Chairman that resigned and left town because he took offense to editorials published about him in Sonoran News, was going after the wrong guys. Arpaio and his wife Ava are the ones who originally published, and continue to publish, their home address on the World Wide Web. If the Arpaios have placed themselves in danger of an imminent and serious threat by making that information available on the Internet, should they be charged with a felony? And, why then would Lacey and Larkin have any reason to believe posting Arpaio�s address on the Phoenix New Times website constituted a serious and imminent threat to Arpaio�s safety? The Arpaios themselves continue to this day to have no qualms about using their home address on their annual reports filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission, readily available on the web, which they�ve been doing since 1995 and as recently as June 2007. Even after Dougherty�s article came out, Arpaio used his home address on his campaign finance reports in 2005, which are posted online at Maricopa County Elections. Arpaio has been posting his home address on the Internet for over a decade. However, while posting his home address on state and county websites, Arpaio abuses another law that allows eligible persons to request the general public be precluded from accessing their residential address and telephone number as contained in instruments recorded by the county recorder or as contained in instruments, writings and information maintained by the county assessor and the county treasurer (A.R.S. ��11-483, 484). Arpaio has extended the meaning of that statute to prevent the general public from accessing information about his commercial real estate holdings, even though there is no such provision under statute.

But Your Honor "I DID NOT KNOW"what a heaping load of crap I bet even you Andrew Thomas have said it yourself a million times when you tell defendants not knowing is no defense but I bet you wish it was now . WHO is in charge in your office ? Who makes all the decisions ? I get it you are Passing the BUCK .

Politicians masters of illusion or a better definition is "Masters of Redirection" divert attention away from one point to another by making me think that the second point is more important than the first .

You claim people are furious with you over the immigration , well think again , I am P O'd about all the young children that all Politicians are claiming they want to protect but all I see is you locking away young children up in prison , who is protecting those children , They need to be educated by Educators not criminals in prison . But I see you offering no brochures , billboards , Television commercials educating our children to the pitfalls of sexual behavior and you tell them NOT KNOWING IS NO EXCUSE" You are not solving the problem you are creating a bigger one .

You give NO second chance to our kids , no second chance for you .

Lumping all Sex Offenders into one category saying they are all the same , well to me that is like saying , all shoplifters , petty thieves , crooks , cat burglars , armed robbers are the same , Wake up People , who's kidding who here , they don't care about your children , power and money and greed motivate these people and who do you think out of everyone is the easiest to target and get the upper hand with , just like predators , they are targeting your Children .

And lets not forget the child porn they use as a guise , Officials have no problem tracking down Millions of people who look at this child porn stuff , but they cannot track down the few people who sell this stuff , They don't want those people , those people help keep them in business .

"WAKE UP AMERICA" The Coffee is burning on the Stove ,don't let your house burn down too ,

I am stunned these anti-american right-wing republikkkan fascists who revile and spit on the constitution were allowed to go as far as they did by other officials, lawyers and citizens asleep at the wheel. That is truly scary in and of itself. Where is the progressive community? The regular democrats? Anyone with backbone? What a bunch of scared children they have become -- or maybe always have been.

I am reminded of this:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out� because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out� because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out� because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out� because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me� and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Andrew Thomas and Joe Arpaio demanded respect for their families and they have no respect for the rest of the world. Andrew Thomas was scared for the safety of his siblings but what about Larking kids feelings when they found out that the Sheriffs were waiting for their dad, but he worst thing was for somthing personal..god..Joe Arpaio has 70000 warrants against criminals and he is spending time of his crew arresting a few corn vendors it is rediculous...I have seen actors turn into politics but these guys want to do the opposite but please dont use my money...use your own resources cause you guys have after all...